The development of subjective group dynamics: When in‐group bias gets specific

Abstract

Children aged 6–7 years and 10–11 years evaluated an in‐group or out‐group summer school and judged in‐group or out‐group members whose attitudes towards the summer schools were either normative or anti‐normative. According to a subjective group dynamics model of intergroup processes, intergroup differentiation and intragroup differentiation co‐occur to bolster the validity of in‐group norms. The hypothesis that this process develops later than simple in‐group bias was confirmed. All children expressed global in‐group bias, but differential reactions to in‐group and outgroup deviants were stronger among older children. Moreover, the increasing relationship, with age, between in‐group bias and evaluative preferences for in‐group and out‐group members that provide relative support to in‐group norms, is mediated by the degree of perceptual differentiation among group members.

Older but wilier: In-group accountability and the development of subjective group dynamics.

“…As expected, differential inclusion was significantly different from zero (M ϭ 1.46, SD ϭ 2.44), t (204) Abrams, Rutland, Cameron, & Marques, 2003) and the assumption that older children should have a clearer understanding of group dynamics in an intergroup context.…”

“…To the extent that the form of interactions obtained in previous studies Abrams, Rutland, Cameron, & Marques, 2003) were replicated, this would provide convergent validation for the idea that the same underlying processes are at work.…”

“…The questions were as follows: "How do you think other children at [ To calculate an index of differential inclusion, we subtracted the out-group inclusion rating from the in-group inclusion rating. In previous research, Abrams and Abrams, Rutland, Cameron, and Marques (2003) found that this score was typically positive for a normative member and negative for a deviant member. Then the score for the deviant member was subtracted from the score for the normative member.…”

“…Following a study by Abrams, Rutland, Cameron, and Marques (2003), the present research was set in the intergroup context of summer activity schemes (referred to as summer school) in England. It is important to note that summer activity schemes are not comparable to North American summer camps, which children attend for a long time on a regular, often annual, basis and which may serve the development of a strong sense of cohesiveness.…”

“…Random assignment to condition was successful within all age levels (maximum difference between cell sizes in the accountable and the control condition ϭ 5, modal difference ϭ 1), 2 (7, N ϭ 207) ϭ 4.54, p ϭ .72. Abrams, Rutland, Cameron, and Marques (2003) used a fixed order of presentation of group members. In the present research, order was counterbalanced.…”